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Colombia sexual violence - Blanca Nubia Díaz’s story

4 October 2012, 00:00 UTC

Human rights activist Blanca Nubia Díaz has been seeking justice for her daughter, Irina del Carmen Villero Díaz, ever since the 15-year-old Indigenous girl was raped and killed by paramilitaries working with the security forces in May 2001 in the Cuestecitas area of Albania Municipality, La Guajira Department.She was able to establish the whereabouts of her daughter’s body, but had to leave La Guajira following threats from paramilitaries. In 2010, she was finally able to reclaim her daughter’s remains and the burial according to Wayúu ritual took place in August 2010. The criminal investigation into the rape, torture and killing of her daughter have made little progress.Many witnesses are too frightened to come forward. She, too, has received repeated death threats because of her work.Blanca reported her daughter’s rape and murder to the local Office of the Attorney General in Maicao, La Guajira Department, but there was no progress in the case. However, the investigation was transferred to the Human Rights Unit in Bogotá after it was included among the 183 cases presented by the Constitutional Court in its Auto 092 ruling. Blanca Nubia Díaz and her family have been threatened repeatedly. On 28 July 2011, her grandson was stopped by two men in Bogotá and told: “We know your mother, and we know about your granny Blanca Nubia, and what she does and who she is with.”